


A Little Kindness

by Tayani



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akira is a good boy, Boys In Love, Fluff, Goro is tired as hell, Inspired by Twitter, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-27 01:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21110111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tayani/pseuds/Tayani
Summary: Inspired bythis tweet."Goro is so exhausted that he leaves his house wearing slippers. He doesn't notice until he is at the underground station. He starts to panic when Akira arrives and offers him his shoes 'your reputation is important to you, I don't mind' Goro's chest hurts when he accepts."





	A Little Kindness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Earley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Earley/gifts).

Today sucked.

Actually, the whole damn week sucked. Big time.

Goro sighed, shuffling out of the door and making sure he locked it. He couldn’t afford doubling back, not today – he’ll be cutting it close anyhow. Then again, he  _ did  _ wake up around fifteen minutes ago. He was pretty proud of himself for managing to get out on time, at least.

Taking on an actual job as a detective, even if he was more of a poster-boy to the police than anything else, Goro knew his workload was going to become overwhelming at times. Granted, he did not expect the swelling of his tasks as a detective to coincide with pre-exams tightening of standards at his school. Goro now received constant passive-aggressive reminders from all his teachers about the additional homework he should file in to make up for his less than satisfactory attendance, and his homework  _ had to  _ be perfect every time. And on top of all that, of course Shido wasn’t going to bother reigning in his mounting requests. If anything, he seemed to encourage all of his disgusting accomplices to shower Goro with more errands to run in the Metaverse, as if waiting for him to say he couldn’t do it all.

_ Ha _ . As if Goro was going to give the bastard the satisfaction.

As a result of all this, now the hellish week was finally coming to an end, Akechi Goro could be seen dashing towards the station, stomach empty and gurgling, face pale even with all the makeup on. He was running on some ten hours of sleep total over the last five days and if he had to take one more triple espresso with energy drink dumped into it for heightened effect, Goro felt he might end up hearing colours or whatever else an exhausted brain might be getting up to.

The detective sighed, stumbling through the gates and running down the stairs onto his platform. He made it in time; he was even a bit early, seeing as the train wasn’t yet approaching.  _ Good _ . Stifling a yawn, Goro slumped against one of the pillars at the station, reaching down for his phone. He didn’t even have the time to check the weather today. He blinked sleepily at the screen, trying to force his exhausted brain to make sense of the words displayed when something else caught his eye. At first, he wasn’t sure what was it he was seeing. There was the feeling of an overwhelming  _ wrongness  _ to the world – like hearing one note out of tune in a symphony. Goro lowered his phone and stared down, trying to process what he was seeing.

The grey floor of the train station. His legs. His feet. His slippers…

… _ wait a fucking moment. _

Goro felt like a bucket of cold water has just been poured over his head. His eyes widened, staring at the offending sight, wishing, hoping against hope that if he stares long enough, the facts will turn out to be different. They didn’t. He really left his house and walked all the way to the station in his home slippers. And he had a whole day of school and a whole afternoon of work he needed to attend. He won’t have time to go back and change; he’ll already be cutting it close even if he boarded the train he was currently waiting for. God, what to do? Just pretend he didn’t notice anything, endure the ride to school and then just change into the school shoes? No way, someone – some other student – will surely notice him. Anyhow, the shoeboxes they had at school were open, everyone will see he left his slippers there instead of his usual shoes. And what would he do at the office? He had to work so hard for every single ounce of respect there – it’ll all just be completely shattered if he starts his shift like this. And what if, god forbid, Shido summons him for a report on some banal issue? How would he even endure standing in front of that bastard in his home slippers, probably all wet and dirty by the time he’d be summoned?

Goro’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment and the feeling hasn’t been alleviated one bit at the sound of a familiar voice calling his name.

“Oh… Akechi! Hello.”

Kurusu fucking Akira. Of course. Goro could not keep the mortified expression off of his face, his eyes watering no matter how much he tried to stop them from doing so. He was already trying hard not to cry out of humiliation alone; he really didn’t need the (incredibly cute) barista to come here and mock him on top of everything else. Too late, Goro’s eyes dashed around the station, looking for a place to escape to, to hide; but it was no use. Akira was almost on him now, waving a cheerful if sleepy wave on his way over. His (pretty, so pretty) dumb smile turned into a frown when he came close, noticing Goro’s expression – one of a deer caught in headlights. Slowly, not caring for Goro’s pleading look, Akira’s eyes slid down, staring pointedly at Goro’s shoes – or lack thereof. Goro could just die on the spot, right then and there.

“…oh,” Akira said, eyes widening. He looked quickly up at Goro’s red face. The detective hung his head, raising his hands in defeat.

“Yes, yes, I know, incredibly funny. I simply—I must have been too sleepy while leaving the house, haha, I—” he started to ramble, trying to alleviate the situation  _ somehow _ , in any small way he could think of. Akira’s silence made his words wither in his throat, however. He was just staring at him. Goro wanted to cry.

And then, in a movement so sudden Goro almost yelped, Akira’s bag with a cat inside has been thrust into his arms.

“Hang on to this,” Akira said, bending down, jumping on one foot as he started to undo his shoelaces. Goro stared, dumbfounded, ignoring Morgana’s indignant meows at being manhandled. It took Akira starting to take off his other shoe for his speech to return.

“Kurusu-kun, what are you—”

“Give me your slippers,” Akira said, his voice quiet, but commanding. Goro swallowed, about to protest, but obeyed once Akira frowned at him impatiently. He put Goro’s slippers on and took back his bag, grabbing Goro’s attaché case as well.

“Wear these,” he said, grinning at the detective. “Come on… I know they’re not really your style, but it’s better than slippers. You can say you’re trying out a new look, or that they’re more sporty than usual ‘cause your schedule leaves you too little time for physical exercise and you need to make do… something like that. People will swallow it, I know you can pull it off.”

Goro was still staring. Akira rolled his eyes.

“Come on! Your train is gonna be here soon, right?”

“But—” Goro said, hesitantly picking up one of the proffered shoes. Akira shook his head, cutting him off.

“Look,” he said impatiently. “I’m an outcast at my school anyway. The guy with the criminal record coming to school in slippers? People won’t be even surprised. They’ll probably make up a rumour I’ve been up drinking in Shinjuku whole night and forgot to change or something. The point is, I don’t care.  _ You  _ do care, though, right? Akechi Goro can’t be seen going around in slippers. So  _ wear these _ .”

“I couldn’t—”

“You  _ will _ . Look, if you argue any more I’ll run away, okay? Even in these I’m pretty sure I can run faster than you. Just put the damn shoes on.”

Goro opened his mouth. Goro closed his mouth and obediently put the damn shoes on. Akira nodded, looking incredibly happy for someone who just switched his perfectly good shoes for home slippers. He was rummaging in his bag, too. When Goro reached for his attaché case, he received it together with a small, rectangular box being pushed into his hands.

“Also, this. Boss made me a bento box for today, he said we had some leftover curry he had to get rid of. You eat it, you look like you’ve missed breakfast. And dinner. And lunch. And previous breakfast, too.”

“I’m really not hung—” Goro tried to say, only for his stomach to give a loud grumble in protest. Akira had the audacity to giggle at him.

“Sure you’re not,” the other boy said. He was still smiling; Goro felt like punching his stupid, grinning face and also like kissing it.  _ More  _ like kissing it, honestly. He settled for trying not to cry, because if his exhausted, idiotic self did something as dumb as cry in front of Kurusu Akira on top of everything else, he’ll really lose it.

“…thank you,” he whispered instead, carefully packing the bento box away. God, he needed to thank him properly but he  _ couldn’t _ . He’ll really start crying if he tries to talk  _ now _ . Akira nodded sympathetically, resting his hand on Goro’s shoulder.

“Hey… it’s okay, alright? And—” Akira hesitated; to Goro’s surprise, the other boy was blushing now. “Tomorrow… do you have work tomorrow?”

“H-huh? Oh… no, I don’t. Only school, thankfully…” Goro started, only to trail off when Akira’s face lit up at the news.

“Great! Come to Leblanc, then. When you have a moment. To… give me my shoes back, and the box. And I’ll make you coffee and—if you’re not too tired to hang out, we could do some stuff together? There’s a movie running in Shibuya right now, a Neo Feathermen one. I know it’s just sentai anime and stuff, but if you—”

“I’d love that,” Goro breathed, momentarily forgetting that Akechi Goro, the Detective Prince, did not obsess over Neo Feathermen. Akira’s smile was worth the slip, though.

“ _ Awesome _ ,” the other boy said, as if Goro just did him some great favour instead of taking over his shoes and lunch. Akira looked around, squinting at the train that just pulled up on the station.

“Oh—that’s mine! See you tomorrow, then,” he waved, leaving a very dazed Goro behind. The detective watched him, skipping onto the train in his slippers, without a care in the world. He stared at the place Akira disappeared at for a long time after the train left. Once his own finally arrived and Goro boarded it, feeling only slightly uncomfortable in the new shoes, he tried to understand two things.

First one was, why did his heart start thumping in his chest somewhere during his conversation with Kurusu, and why won’t it stop?

Second was… he could be wrong. But he was also quite sure, even in his exhausted state, that he had scored a date for tomorrow.

And that, also tomorrow, he will most likely see Akira smile at him again. And maybe be able to thank him properly.

Goro slipped down onto a miraculously free seat and pulled his attaché case up to his chest. No one was paying attention to him at the moment, and that was just as well – in borrowed shoes, tired out of his mind and very much worse for wear, Akechi Goro hid his face behind his case, and a very non-Detective-Prince-like grin shone on his face like a little sun.

**Author's Note:**

> If you like my stories and would like updates on my writing process/life/current obsessions, you can find me on twitter [@mikan_writings](https://twitter.com/mikan_writings)!


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